The present invention relates to a roller bottle filling and harvesting system for processes for the culture of adhesive cells such as animal cells, plant cells and microbes of the adhesive type, and that can perform the processes of filling cell culture containers of the roller bottle type (hereinafter termed "roller bottles") with serum medium or the like, cleaning and exchanging the medium, and cell inoculation, and the accompanying processes of roller bottle decapping and capping automatically and at high-speed under aseptic conditions.
Conventionally, free culture containers using hollow fibers or micro-carriers have been used as culture containers for adhesive cells such as animal cells. However, it is not possible to cultivate certain types of cells except for roller bottles. Culture in roller bottles had not been automated or mechanized and so the work for filling the roller bottles with medium and the cell inoculation and other tasks had to be performed manually. And furthermore, the roller bottles for the processing general have a small capacity of about 2,000 to 3,000 ml.
Because of this, many persons had to be used when the culture of large volumes of adhesive-type animal cells was performed using roller bottles. This means, therefore, the incidence of microbial contamination caused by workers are high.
Furthermore, the use of playback-type robots to fully automize roller bottle cell culture without intervention by humans and under aseptic conditions therefore had been proposed. However, this resulted not only in the necessity to have an equal number of playback-type robots as there were humans in the first place, but also other problems such as the processing devices becoming large and complex, and difficulties in controlling the robots.
Also, widely used is a conventional type of roller bottle filling and harvesting system as shown in FIG. 20 for U.S. Pat. No. 4761936. As is disclosed in this patent, cells, particularly animal cells, are cultivated in roller bottles B which are handled or processed by a system comprising a decapper 604, the first liquid withdrawing and filling machine 605 in which culture medium is withdrawn and a bottle cleaning liquid is supplied, a bottle rolling mechanism 617 for washing the inner wall of the bottle in a horizontally-reclined state while rolling the same, the second liquid withdrawing and filling machine 605a in which the cleaning liquid is withdrawn and culture medium is supplied, and a capper 627. The decapper, the first liquid withdrawing and filling machine, the bottle rolling mechanism, the second liquid withdrawing and filling machine, and the capper are all located in an aseptic chamber 603, in this order along a conveyor 602 which extends between a bottle supply turntable 601 and a bottle collecting turntable 628.
In this type of conventional roller bottle filling and harvesting system, much space is required for installation because the weight of the roller bottles is used to make them fall and tilt within a specific space in which the roller bottle is then cleaned. This requires much space for installation and moreover, because the weight of the bottles is used to make the bottles tilt from the upright position, it is very difficult to achieve high-speed and automated cleaning processing as there is a clear limit to the processing performance.
In view of these problems, the present invention has as an objective the provision of a roller bottle filling and harvesting system of a relatively simple structure, using a mechanism to forcedly tilt the roller bottles, and perform the processes of filling cell culture containers of the roller bottle type with cell culture medium, cleaning and exchanging the medium, and cell inoculation, and the accompanying processes of roller bottle decapping and capping automatically at high-speed under aseptic conditions and without the use of manual processes or the use of playback type robots.